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- Kaufmann House; Richard Neutra's Iconic Palm Springs Desert Modern Design
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The war moratoriums were slowly lifted as World War II ended, but relatively strict building regulations remained enforced. However, Neutra was able to find his way around the restrictions by breaking ground on the foundation a few days before the official enforcement. The project resulted in a total cost of nearly $300,000, surpassing the current single-family residence average of $40,000. Neutra’s work is notable for its ability to blur the boundary between inside and outside.
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The goal was to highlight modern homes constructed with industrial materials and techniques that could help solve the housing needs after WWII. No other building has been referred to or echoed in architecture more than the Pantheon. Architects worldwide have extracted principles from this building throughout the course of history. It can give insight into our ancestors' customs, rituals, technologies, religions, and daily life. Architecture can provide a deeper understanding of the evolution and development of the human species.
Kaufmann House; Richard Neutra's Iconic Palm Springs Desert Modern Design
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She continues to promote architectural education through her work with the California Preservation Foundation, and as a major donor to the emerging Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture & Design Center, named the Edwards Harris Pavilion in her honor. Her former husband Brent also continues to actively support preservation activities in Palm Springs and is currently restoring a Welton Becket-designed home in the historic Tennis Club neighborhood. Barry Manilow ultimately moved into the old Walter Braunschweiger Residence, a 1935 Spanish-style compound on a private hilltop in the town's Mesa neighborhood, leaving the Kaufmann desert house to sit empty for 3 ½ years.
Timeline
Much was made of Neutra's skirting of local ordinances that prohibited second stories, but similar upper-level sleeping porches were commonplace in the desert. They were often included in early Spanish-style homes that, in pre-air conditioning days, had sleeping porches (or gloriettes) that caught the evening breeze and allowed locals to sleep outdoors during the hottest summer months. The origins of the house are familiar to architecture fans because of the pedigree of its owner, Edgar Kaufmann, the Pittsburg department store magnate. Kaufmann meant no disrespect to Wright, but he sought a home more open and airy than anything in Wright's vocabulary.
It then went through a series of several owners including famed singer Barry Manilow and Eugene V. Klein, who was the owner of the San Diego Chargers. During this time, it also underwent various interior and architectural changes without any thought of preservation from any of the ensuing owners. The roof was altered to add air-conditioning, wallpaper was put up in the bedrooms, and a wall was torn down in the living room to add additional living space.
light and air permeate through residence's stacked concrete volumes in philippines
In 1993, the house’s current owner hired Los Angeles architectural firm Marmol and Radziner to return the house to its original state by relying on many painstakingly researched original materials and production processes. The influence of the Kaufmann House extends beyond its immediate visual and spatial attributes; it has permeated various realms of culture and design. The house has been featured in numerous films, advertisements, and fashion shoots, each time serving as a symbol of stylish modern living and the seamless integration of architecture and nature. Its representation in popular media has played a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions of modernist architecture, portraying it as an ideal of sophistication and modern American lifestyle.
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Neutra responded to the flat site with a pinwheel floor plan whose four wings follow the cardinal directions. The house is entered through the southern wing, which is oriented perpendicular to the street. Visitors first follow a short, irregular pathway that traverses a small, landscaped area with boulders and desert plants.

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Major outdoor rooms are enclosed by a row of movable vertical fins that offer flexible protection against sandstorms and intense heat. In 1945, Kaufmann acquired a large 200' x 300' (2.6 acre) site that was isolated near the foot of Mt. San Jacinto and studded with rugged desert landscape. His desert house was not designed to blend into the site in the Wrightian style; rather it was to be an object in space in the classical fashion of the European villa. Originally priced as $30,000, (the 3,800 sq. ft. home ultimately cost $300,000) the house turned out to be simple -- and simply expensive. Rectangular in plan, its form was essentially a glass pavilion with planar walls that extended into the site via two axes one north-south -- the other east-west. In this plan, outdoor living areas are sheltered by adjustable walls composed of movable vertical fins that offer flexible protection against sandstorms.
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The architect championed the importance of "ready-for-anything" designs that have open, multi-use spaces, and coined the concept "The Changing House" for an article he wrote in 1947 for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. After the Harrises divorced, the home was supposedly sold on May 13, 2008, for US$15 million at auction by Christie's as a part of a high-profile sale of contemporary art. Additionally, the Harrises were able to have a long-closed section of a Utah quarry re-opened to mine matching stone to replace what had been removed or damaged. To help restore the desert buffer Neutra had envisioned for the house, the Harrises also bought several adjoining plots to more than double the land around the 3,200-square-foot (300 m2) house. The Kaufmann House, or Kaufmann Desert House, in Palm Springs, California, was designed by Richard Neutra in 1946.
After having been significantly amended by its successive owners, current owners of the residence decided to return it to its original state. The architects removed the areas added and restored the house based on the famous photographs Julius Shulman did of the house in 1947. The architects decided to also return to the desert garden look it had in times of Neutra. In addition, they incorporated a discrete heating, air conditioning and ventilation system, and a new pavilion at the pool, known as the Harris Poll House. Kaufmann passed away in 1955 and the Kaufmann House was left abandoned for several years.
His career took off and his work in Southern California began after an old classmate, Rudolph Schindler, encouraged him to move there. Schindler is best known for 1929’s Lovell House in Los Angeles, which is believed to be one of the first steel-framed homes in America and is celebrated for its extensive glass windows and cable-suspended balconies. Not surprisingly, Richard Neutra became famous for designing his houses in the International Style, using a great deal of glass and metal in his projects—just what Kaufmann was after to better observe the desert environs. Following the end of World War II, he was commissioned for the Kaufmann house, and it later became a beloved piece of the renowned International Style architecture he was known for. So exacting were the standards of the owners and architects that when, in the course of the restoration, a missing stone wall had to be reconstructed a defunct Utah sandstone quarry was re-opened to secure matching stone. The first batch of stone that arrived was not a perfect match, but a second quarry did the trick.
The central hub of the pinwheel plan is the living area to the right of the entrance hallway. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass panes along the right side and the far end fill the room with abundant light, unless the curtains are pulled, and, depending on the weather, open it to the outdoor swimming pool. Forming the center of the room is a fireplace set into a wall, as well as an adjacent sofa. Behind the fireplace a passageway leads along another full-height glass wall to the eastern wing, which accommodates a master bedroom with bathroom, a dressing area, and a small study or den. A covered, outdoor walkway leads from the enclosed living area along a low water channel, or lily pond, to two guest bedrooms in the northern wing. Along its eastern side, the walkway widens into an outdoor terrace between the living area and the guest rooms.
When the windscreens are not required, louvers can be adjusted to open up to the views. Another essential feature of the home is the use of the “wings.” The house is prominently focused on being east- and west- concentrated for sunset and sunrise purposes. The west wing is used for the kitchen and service rooms and the east wing is used for the master bedroom. The family and dining areas located at the center of the home are square to conform to the boxy design of the property. The plan of the house was tailored to the always-warm California climate, which at times can be rather harsh.
When Brent and Beth Harris first saw the Kaufmann House, it was neither a pretty palace nor an obvious candidate for restoration. Strikingly photographed in 1947 by Julius Shulman, it stood vacant for several years after Kaufmann’s death in 1955. Then it went through a series of owners, including the singer Barry Manilow, and a series of renovations. Along the way, a light-disseminating patio was enclosed, one wall was broken through for the addition of a media room, the sleek roof lines were interrupted with air-conditioning units, and some bedrooms were wallpapered in delicate floral prints. Those owners, Brent Harris, an investment manager, and Beth Edwards Harris, an architectural historian, are finalizing their divorce, and plan to auction the Kaufmann House at Christie’s in New York in May. The building, with a presale estimate of $15 million to $25 million, will be part of Christie’s high-profile evening sale of postwar and contemporary art.
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